one more miracle

I haven't been posting pretty much at all, and it's really unfortunate. Kind of a bad side effect of Twitter - I already feel like i've talked about myself enough every day, I don't really feel the pressing need to make a blog post. But I know LJ is so much more lasting and coherent than Twitter updates, so I'm going to force myself to make a long one now. Feel free to skip as much as you like - I just need to have this on the record, so to speak. Now with handy headers for skimming!

The Midwest Stress Response and Molecular Chaperone Meeting
I went to that conference in Chicago with Jason's lab, and it was great! It was a topic-specific meeting, for our very small field, so I understood everything quite well (much better than at a typical mixed-topic conference) and learned a lot about the state of the field and how people approach the questions in it. I got to talk to the woman whose work is the inspiration for my own - she's an experienced professor who was quite intimidating, but I'm glad at least that she now knows who I am and is at least marginally aware of what I want to do. Even better, I talked to her postdoc who did some work that's really interesting to me, and I asked him how he accomplished a particular experiment, and he was like "Oh I'll just send you what we used!" which is actually a pretty hefty collection of really useful tools (overexpression plasmids, for the scientists in the crowd) that will really help give my project a kick in the pants. When/if I join the lab! The weekend gave me great hope that I will in fact join - just the fact that Jason brought me along, and a long conversation we had about the possible directions for my project. I also had a great time hanging out with the people in the lab, and all in all it just reinforced my certainty that this is the place for me, and that Jason thinks so too. So yay. :D (Update: I just forwarded an email conversation I had with that postdoc to Jason, and Jason replied almost immediately with "Thanks Anne - this is exactly what we need." :D I'm so proud of myself! I started a collaboration all on my own! \o/)

Second semester classes
Classes have been going fine. Remember that new academic experiment I told you about, where every class is 10 students giving presentations but no actual lectures? Well, it's actually working out much better than I expected. It still sucks having to put together two presentations a week, but it's getting easier with practice, and the two talks I've given have gone really well. And the other people's talks have been much better than I expected! I've learned about a wide range of topics and all in all it's been quite cool. Props to Dr. Sherman for totally pulling it off, in complete contrast to Dr. Fuckhead from last semester. :P My other class is low key and simple, though our big project, to pitch a new "product" to accomplish some biotech goal, is a little intimidating. I tentatively like the people in my group, though I'm holding out judgment on that.

Second lab rotation (anti-cancer)
Lab is fine. I've only just gotten started doing my own experiments. My first one went quite well, reproducing nicely the results of our very experienced tech, so that's encouraging. I did another, very big, experiment for three days, but I still need two MORE days before I actually get the result, and there's no way of knowing right now if it went well. I'm nervous, but I think I did everything right and it should come out at least reasonably well! *crosses fingers* Working with my new boss, Zaneta, is very different than Jason. She's very smart and I think I'll learn a lot from her, but she's also rather more hands-on. Which is fine, it will just take some adjusting. As for cancer research, I'm less excited about it than what I was doing before, because it's so... I don't know, dismal? "Successes" in the cancer field are analogous to dismal failures in other diseases. It's just very difficult for me. I know it needs to be done, and something is better than nothing, but I know it's not for me. Which is fine, since I definitely can't join this lab, so in the meantime I'll just learn and absorb techniques and do the best job I can.

Auto Show!
In NOT science-related things (seriously - I guess this is the life of a grad student!) I went to the Detroit International Auto Show yesterday with my uncle and three little girl cousins! It was AWESOME!! You may know that I LOVE CARS. Like, A LOT. So to roll around in them for four hours was beyond heaven. :DDD And while the Maserati and Lexus concept car and the Audis and the Maybach and the Teslas were gorgeous and sexy as fuck, I'm at heart a modest-yet-badass kind of car lover, so the highlight for me was sitting behind the wheels of a Camaro (unf, you guys, UNFFFFFF), a Mustang, a Challenger, and a Charger. The latter two have rather cheap interiors, but I wanted so badly to put the pedal to that metal. :D My other very favorite (and the display I lingered around the most, sighing wistfully) was the Mazdas. I have mentioned that I have a very serious desire to purchase a Mazda 3 or a Mazda 2, and after sitting in the former and gazing upon the latter, I have an even more serious desire! They're so pretty and small and sporty and fun. The hatchback model means I'd still have some cargo space, and by all accounts they have fun, zippy handling that would be a sheer delight. Let's have some pictures! ( Sassy little lime green cars behind the cut! )

Sorry, sorry, I'll stop drooling now. In conclusion: CARS!!!! :DDD I had a great time with my uncle and cousins, and afterwards I went to their place for a delicious homemade meal of grilled whitefish and swordfish, om nom nom. It was a lovely day, if entirely exhausting!

Afterwards, I drove straight to Francisco's house here in Ann Arbor to hang out with him and Steffen, Kate, and Jenna. We watched CENTERSTAGE and MONSTERS, INC. Why yes, I love my friends, thanks for asking. :DDD Eion Bailey in Centerstage was beyond adorable, omfg. How is he so beautiful??? :D

Lol dolphin trainers

The night before the auto show, my roomies said they were going out for "a drink" so I said why the hell not. We went to a bar, actually sat AT the bar for once, and promptly met two cute grad students who were completely ridic. I was already quite tipsy from beer at dinner, proceeded quickly to drunk with a margarita, and landed squarely on smashed after the guys bought us tequila shots. Oops. :) The guys managed to convince drunk!me that one of them was a dolphin trainer here at Michigan, which, lol - cause there are TOTALLY dolphins in Michigan. I bet they're still proud of pulling that one over on a poor guillible drunk girl. :P I got waaay too cozy with the other dude, but not illicitly, just super-affectionate like I can be. After a couple hours, they walked us home and we said adios - doubt we'll ever see them again, but boy was that FUN. I had forgotten how much fun it can be to just go out, meet random people, and have a good time. In fact, I've been more social in the last three days than I have in three months, which brings me to my final point:

Dave

Dave and I are on a break right now. It's complicated. I've got a mixture of relief, guilt, sadness, and uncertainty, and it's really hard to talk about. So I'm not going to sully this post with that. Maybe some other time.

Last but not least, Teevee

I haven't even seen the new Supernatural yet, but this week's Bones was FANTASTIC. HODGINNNNNS. *squooshes him* If they're going where I think they're going, COUNT ME COMPLETELY IN. BWEE. Also, Castle was lovely and touching and Kaaaaate. Poor darling strong wonderful girl. The tone was definitely more serious than usual (NO ALEXIS *pout*) but it worked reasonably well. Continues to be one of the best shows on TV, with the most heart. ♥

Dave is so marvelously indulgent of me. Because I've been making obscene noises just at the THOUGHT of Ewan and George together for the past week, Dave came with me to see The Men Who Stare at Goats. It was funny! I enjoyed it. Certainly not the best movie I've ever seen, but Ewan and George, okay. Half of the movie is them flailing about and being idiots together, and it's glorious. And I SHIP IT. Just sayin. I could have done without Clooney's mustache, but at one point he grows his hair out shoulder length cause he's a big hippie, and it's beautiful, okay. Look! Adorable! Eee, favorites. <333333 (Yes, I have tags for these two men. I LOVE THEM. A+ casting!)

And THEN, Dave indulged me FURTHER by watching The Boondock Saints with me. Is he the greatest or what?! I noted that BDS II is finally out here (even if it sucks, I'M REALLY EXCITED OKAY) and he was like 'ooh yeah but I want to see the first again before I see that.' So I was like, that can be arranged! :D! And so we went to his place and cuddled and watched MacManuses be beautiful together. And I recited lines along with the movie because I am that person. 'Each day we will spill their blood til it rains down from the skies!' Ugh I love that movie so damn much. <33333

Every day I get more comfortable with Dave. I've never experienced this before. Yay warmfuzzies. :D

The problem with being so comfortable with him is that I never leave his apartment at a reasonable time, dammit. I need to be IN LAB in 7.5 hours. Sigh. :P Goodnight my loves!

Monday mornings aren't supposed to be unexpectedly nice, but I'm not going to complain! This morning, I was sitting at my computer in the lab, back to the door, and suddenly someone's hand landed on my head and kind of rubbed my hair a little bit. I started, assumed it was my friend Ryan from downstairs, turned to say hi and did a hilarious double take, because it was DAVE!! Dave is my lab coworker from last summer, and it turns out he was just passing through for the afternoon and came into the lab to do some researching through our online resources. It was such a wonderful surprise!! He graduated so he's not around anymore, and I MISS him something fierce. Some of you might remember that I had a massive crush on him last year, and while I'm over it, he still makes me super happy just by being around. He teases me a lot and we're just super comfortable together. It was so lovely to just chat with him for a couple hours (I totally didn't do any work in that time.... oops!). I asked him about his new job as a lab tech at Dupont, which he got straight out of college, and he told me that he's making $56,000 a year, PLUS benefits. Holy crap!! On top of that, he was OVERqualified for the job. This is so encouraging for me, since I'm planning on getting a similar job right out of college to save up for grad school.

So that was a nice start to my week! \o/

Let's see, what else is goin down. I talked to my daddy for an hour on the phone today. I asked him if my tattoo could definitely be my bday present, and he said yes. I then went on to explain my tattoo philosophy to him (which is, ahem, stolen from Frank Iero, because it is that awesome - in short, it's that each tattoo represents who you were at some stage in your life, and if you give them enough consideration that they ARE true to who you are in that moment in time, you can never get tired of them because you don't (shouldn't) get tired of yourself). He seemed reassured and impressed that I give the whole thing so much thought. I think it still weirds him out a little that I'm getting tattoos, and talking about them like this is just the start. He said that he was actually surprised I was brave enough for the pain, and I laughed and said that Mom said that too. And he said that that's probably because I was such a WUSS when I was little, sobbing over the tiniest of boo boos, so he and my Mom both associate that with me still. Even though it's not really true at all anymore. I thought that was really sweet and cute. Somehow we got on the topic of how my daddy raised me and I got to tell him how much I love and appreciate him and his approach to my upbringing, which was very much to let me do what I wanted to do, while just giving me guidance by example in terms of ideals and morals. I am very grateful for my parents in that respect especially - I ALWAYS felt free to be exactly who I wanted to be.

/sappy!

Talking about The Incredible Hulk made me want to see it agaaaaain. Like, ASAP. Ungh so good. I'll just have to make do with Fight Club... my life, so hard!

Hay you guys, fangirls are awesome (or embarrassing? no, mostly awesome) and MADE DAVID HEWLETT SAY "I LOVE YOU TOO JOHN SHEPPARD." NO REALLY. Eeeeeeeeeee!


Ugh ILHIM.

This weekend - WARPED! The weekend after - DC with all of my American girls from Dublin!!! ALL OF THEM! Emmy (Cary's sister) accidentally let slip that EMILY IS COMING TOO! So it's a complete reunion and I am SO RIDICULOUSLY EXCITED I CAN'T EVEN. I knew that this would be perfect timing, because as predicted I am so over this America thing and sinking into a funk of need-Dublin-NOW, so seeing them will really help to stop that downward spiral. They UNDERSTAND my PAIN.

Well, this was a random post! I'm going to go be productive now.

XOXO